Janey Ellen Summers (71) of Beecher City

Janey Ellen Summers, 71, of Beecher City, Illinois, passed peacefully with her family by her side at 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, in HSHS St. John’s Hospital, in Springfield, Illinois.

Funeral Services will be at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, December 12, 2022, in the Beecher City Church of Christ with Reverend Kevin Allen officiating. Burial will take place in Beecher City Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 4:00-8:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 11, 2022, in the church. Memorials may be made to the Beecher City Area Kluthe Center or the donor’s choice. Lockart-Green Funeral Home in Beecher City, Illinois, is assisting the family with arrangements.

Janey was born on December 13, 1950, in Shelbyville, Illinois, the daughter of Robert Wayne and Audrey Ellen Miller. She married her high school sweetheart, Stephen W. Summers on November 26, 1971, in the Free Methodist Church, in Cowden, Illinois. Janey and Steve were both school teachers when they got married and many of their students attended the wedding. They made their home southeast of Beecher City, where they raised their three sons. They celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary on November 26, 2022. Janey graduated from Beecher City High School in the class of 1968. She obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education from Eastern Illinois University in 1971 finishing in three years. She later earned her Master of Science in Elementary Education Degree from Eastern Illinois University. Janey taught second grade in Vandalia, Illinois for 36 years, retiring in 2007. Janey enjoyed quilting, gardening, canning, cooking and volunteering to help in the community in any way she could, however, her greatest joy in life was raising her three sons and being with and being involved with her grandchildren as they were growing up. She was a strong positive influence on her sons and her grandchildren always encouraging them to be good students and to grow up to be good people. Her sons and her grandchildren adored their mother and their Granny. Janey was the Effingham County Fair Queen in 1970 and the recipient of the 2002 Soroptimist Women of Distinction Award in Education. She spent over 20 years following Steve as he pitched fast pitch softball all over central Illinois, taking the boys along to almost all the games. After retirement, Janey looked forward to and cherished every moment with her very special friends Mary Ann Page, Jenney Lester and Becky Bost as they met very often in Vandalia for lunch and visiting.

Janey will be remembered as a very kind, caring and pleasant lady with a pretty smile who was well liked by all who knew her and who never said anything bad about anyone.

Janey is survived by her loving husband, Steve; sons: Aaron (Jamie), Jon (Amy) and Ryan (Kashia); granddaughters: Marissa Janae Summers and Audrey Marie Summers; grandsons: Jarret William Dakota Summers (Kylee), Grant Scott Summers and Wallace Levi Wayne Summers; step grandson, Jackson Kash Ooton and very special foreign exchange student, Carmen Olesen whom Janey truly considered a granddaughter and a member of the family. She is also survived by sister, Cheryl (Jim) Reed; sister-in-law, Sandra Miller; brothers-in-law: Rick (Jewel) Summers, Monte (Debbie) Summers and Tim (Tanya) Summers and special sister-cousin, Janet Lorton.

She was preceded in death by her parents; grandparents; mother and father-in-law, Shirley and Morris Summers; brother, Bruce Lynn Miller; niece, Haley Wilhour; brother-in-law, Scott Lee Summers and many aunts and uncles.

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